The present disclosure relates generally to the interment of human or animal remains. In particular, systems and methods for interring cremated remains including a geolocated plot on a parcel of land and a database for storing location and status of the plot are described.
Today, cemeteries and mortuaries are typically complex enterprises that combine a variety of physical assets. Cemeteries require large tracts of land and specialized improvements that are prepared for occupancy in advance of need. They generally require investment in specific inventory which may take decades to market and absorb.
With traditional burial methods, a dead body is placed in a casket and the casket is buried in the ground of a cemetery. An entire industry revolves around traditional interment, including mortuaries where bodies are preserved and displayed for memorial services, where coffins are sold, and where cemetery plots are sold. A conventional cemetery is typically a unique piece of real estate where remains are interred, generally in perpetuity. A grave stone is usually purchased to place as a marker where the remains are buried. A fee is typically charged for the service and maintenance of the burial plot.
A cemetery, however, is not a typical real estate investment. The land is dedicated to the purpose of interment forever, laws regulate the cemetery business, trusts and endowments are used to pay for the maintenance of the cemetery. A land owner would be remiss to think that a cemetery would be a highest and best use of a plot of real estate in virtually any state in the United States. Some state laws even prohibit profiting on cemetery land.
Until fairly recently, most modern Western consumers have viewed the burial of a body in a cemetery, typically within a coffin, as the most proper means of interment. However, as consumer beliefs have changed, and cremation has become more and more acceptable. Cremation is the process of reducing human or animal remains to ashes. In this state, there is no prohibition against the possession and disposition of the cremated remains, or “cremains.”
Cremains have often been held in a sealed “urn” which is kept by family members of the deceased, or by the owner of a pet that has been cremated. In other cases, ashes are scattered at sea, or taken by a family and scattered in a place desired by the deceased or the family. Some parks are considered “scattering ground” where it is acceptable to simply scatter all or part of cremains, which then become part of the soil and are neutrally integrated into the surroundings. In still other cases, cremains are put into a columbarium, or a permanent memorial device at a cemetery or other location. Columbaria are often walls where cremains are deposited and a small plaque placed on the wall of “drawers” or other storage units. The columbarium is more efficient in that it allows the remains of many more deceased to be placed in a smaller space, and can be built tall or even subterranean.
Once the cremated remains are possessed by the deceased's loved ones, the remains may be disposed of in virtually any way. Usually, a family is faced with only a few options: keep the cremains; permanently inter the cremains and incur the costs of perpetual interment; or dispose of the cremains. Many families do not desire to keep cremains, yet they do not wish to incur the cost of permanent interment. Others are uncomfortable with the ethereal nature of scattering at sea or in a forest.
It is desirable therefore to provide something less ephemeral than the scattering of ashes in the ocean or on the ground, and yet less permanent than the use of a grave or columbarium. Furthermore, it is desirable to provide a sophisticated yet simple and elegant solution that gives “place” to the interment of cremains, yet does so in a way that is free of the burden of cemetery laws, and perpetual maintenance.